I am interested in addressing three main areas: the clean energy transition, nature restoration, and economic transformation. My interest in each is anchored in a care for life. These areas overlap. The clean energy transition coincides strongly with economic transformation, as does nature restoration. Nature and wildlife are kingdoms within and alongside which we live and they must have space to exist. Our economies can become sustainable and inclusive, not extractive and destructive; this is necessary too for life.
I have been focused on the energy transition for over 10 years. I co-founded a company to create a system for load flexibility, also known as grid-interactive buildings. The ability to adjust when electricity is consumed is an important pillar of the transition to an electric grid with high-penetrations of variable renewable generation. Our system controlled HVAC and batteries, with the ability to control additional loads, such as car chargers. It was installed in commercial spaces, schools, and churches, and provided savings and load flexibility at an affordable price and with a rapid payback. I have also consulted on an ordinance to require solar generation and led work on a local solar certification program to promote living wages and local purchases. I volunteer with the Clean Tech Open, where I have an opportunity to mentor people implementing and commercializing novel solutions. I am also involved with a group of experts working to create a distributed, democratic, and equitable electrical grid.
Nature restoration is important to me as well, and I am looking at ways that I can help in this, such as through rewilding and regenerative practices. I live in California, which has an incredible abundance of nature, but much of it has been shunted aside, uprooted and trampled, and it is now under additional threats from climate change. Among other ideas, I envision rewilding our cities. Cities can sculpt themselves within nature, rather than casting wildlife and land aside. Though the city where I live has green spaces, it has little habitat and few native plants, and it is poorer for it. I am exploring ways to change this and volunteer with local organizations working to rewild the places near me.
Creating a sustainable economic system is necessary to meet the needs of life without destroying the earth. Our macroeconomic systems are addicted to endless growth. They are based on extractive and exploitative linear value chains in which life and compassion are externalities. Affluence leads to overconsumption which leads to harmful impacts. These are choices. We can design different economies, ones in which we live within boundaries and provide for the human and non-human beings with whom we share this planet. One where wild things have a world, too, rather than being displaced by the desires of some. How to arrive at this future economy is of great interest to me. I am a member of groups seeking to regenerate the earth and seek out those with insights on how to effect these changes. I also seek to embed these ideas in my work, such as by promoting inclusive and local energy democracy, rewilding, and regeneration.
I have pursued additional interests as well. I have sought to understand how we become, from a single cell to a full organism, and back to a single cell. One of the great wonders of the world is the ability of organisms to construct themselves, atom by atom and cell by cell. I studied developmental neurobiology, where I researched early neuronal maturation and migration. As an undergrad, I studied cellular transport in plants. My understanding of life has continued to evolve, as I see it now in an ever more connected and fluid form, less amenable to definition, full of relations and kin. I have put my background in biology and science to use developing health regulations and supporting the types of in-depth work needed to advance topics such as the energy transition. This has included working on regulations in environmental health and safety that benefited low-wage immigrant workers and serving on the board of an environmental toxicology nonprofit.
I have also enjoyed taking pictures, some of which you can see on my public gallery: https://arihalberstadt.com/lychee/public/. I enjoy the process of pausing to perceive the world differently. Making a photograph is similar to the process I go through to see the world in a new light, which has helped to lead me to the areas of focus I touched on above.